Conversion devices

For simple applications, switching devices such as contactors or solid-state relays can be used to control electrical power. The electrical power in a process can be regulated by varying the ON and OFF times of these devices. But in many processes this provision of energy in large blocks will cause significant variations in the process output. As an example, it would not be possible to control lighting levels simply by using such two-state on/off switching elements. Neither could good temperature controllers be implemented in this way...

The idea of writing this book emerged from the last book Elad coauthored called AdvancED lex 3. In the previous book, Elad wrote an 80-page chapter about mobile devices. Before that book was printed, the team realized that writing a chapter covering Flash Lite may not be suitable for a Flex 3 book, and the chapter was dropped. After a conversation with Clay Andres in Manhattan about trends, technology, Flex, and mobile, Elad and Clay decided that they should do the extraordinary and combine Flash Lite with emerging technologies, taking into account the release of Flash Player 10 on mobile...

The following is an example of an IP address in 32-bit binary form and dotted decimal form.
Binary IP Address: 11000000.10101000.00101101.01111001 Decimal IP Address: 192.168.45.121
Binary data is made up of ones and zeros. Ones represent on and zeros represent off. Binary data can be grouped in varying increments, 110 or 1011. In TCP/IP binary data is usually grouped in eight digit groups called a Byte.
A Byte, 8 bits, can range from 00000000 to 11111111 creating 256 combinations with decimal values ranging from 0 to 255.

Piezoelectricity from the Greek word "piezo" means pressure electricity. Certain crystalline
substances generate electric charges under mechanical stress and conversely experience a
mechanical strain in the presence of an electric field.
The piezoelectric effect was discovered in some naturally occurring materials in the 1880s.
However it was not until the Second World War that man-made polycrystalline ceramic ma‐
terials were produced that also showed piezoelectric properties.

DATA CONVERSION DEVICES AND ERRORS
Data conversion devices provide the interfacing components between continuoustime signals representing the parameters of physical processes and their discrete-time digital equivalent. Recent emphasis on computer systems for automated manufacturing and the growing interest in using personal computers for data acquisition and control have increased the need for improved understanding of the design requirements of real-time computer I/O systems.

Our industrialized society generates an increasing amount of waste. This waste is
released into the atmosphere, dumped into the water or buried into the earth. The pollution
of the atmosphere is primarily caused by the combustion of fossil fuels in energy
conversion devices. Some water and land pollution also occurs during the use of fossil
fuels, but this problem is not as severe as that of air pollution and it is similar to that
confronted by other industries (such as the chemical industry, to name just one).

Generating electricity from a heat source using no
moving mechanical parts is the ultimate goal of the
Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s thermionics program.
However, developing thermionic energy conversion
devices has proven difficult, although much
progress has been made. In spite of initial success during
the late 1960s and intermittent funding since that
time, for a variety of reasons no thermionic system has
yet been developed in the United States that can be
used today on Earth or in space.

A transmission or gearbox provides speed and torque conversions
from a rotating power source to another device using gear ratios,
including for a motor vehicle partly because of the limitations of
internal combustion engines.Usually found near motors of some sort, gearboxes are used to
reduce the load on the motor by using the motor's own momentum
to keep it turning.

Most real world signals of practical interest, such as speech, radar signals, sonar signals, and various communication signals such as audio and video signals are analog. To process an analog signal by digital means, it is vital to convert it into digital form. That is to convert it to a sequence of numbers having finite precision. This procedure is called analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion, and the corresponding devices are called A/D converters.

Electronics is a science about the devices and processes that use electromagnetic energy conversion to transfer, process, and store energy, signals and data in energy, control, and computer systems. This science plays an important role in the world progress.

Sensor Fundamentals
Digital techniques have become increasingly popular in processing sensor outputs in data acquisition, process control, and measurement. Generally, 8-bit microcontrollers (8051-based, for example) have sufﬁcient speed and processing capability for most applications. By including the A/D conversion and the microcontroller programmability on the sensor itself, a “smart sensor” can be implemented with self-contained calibration and linearization features, among others. A smart sensor can then interface directly to an industrial network as shown in Figure 1.2.4.

We are all witnesses that the beginning of the 21st century in technological terms is
dedicated to mobile communications - they are everywhere: smartphones, Ipads, ereaders,
and many other wireless devices. Once a fiction, today is a reality – music on
demand, video on demand, live video conversation via IP on a tablet. What will be the
next technological achievement that will have such huge impact on human living? I
dare to predict that the second half of this century will by highly influenced by mobile
robotics – robots will become ubiquitous décor in everyday life....

Power Electronics is the technology associated with efficient conversion, control and conditioning of electric power from its available input into the desired electrical output form. The field of the book is concerned of electrical power processing using electronic devices the key component of which is a switching power converter.

In everyday parlance a ‘filter’ is a device that removes some component from whatever is passed through it. A drinking-water filter removes salts and bacteria; a coffee filter removes coffee grinds; an air filter removes pollutants and dust. In electronics the word ‘filter’ evokes thoughts of a system that removes components of the input signal based on frequency.

Power quality is an important measure of fitness of electricity networks. With increasing renewable energy generations and usage of power electronics converters, it is important to investigate how these developments will have an impact to existing and future electricity networks. This book hence provides readers with an update of power quality issues in all sections of the network, namely, generation, transmission, distribution and end user, and discusses some practical solutions.